“With tech, the risk-on trade is better than ever, especially when you look at Apple, which keeps breaking through to new historic highs. It’s such a bellwether for the sector,” said Premier Financial’s Martiak of the iPod maker, which had its market capitalization top $500 billion on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, stocks reverted to losses, with the Dow clearing what had been a 50-point rise, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke curbed market expectations of more monetary easing in testifying before Congress.

Gold futures
GCJ2
sank and the dollar
DXY, +0.38%
rebounded after Bernanke didn’t deliver any hint that the Fed was thinking about further steps to bolster economic growth.

“This must have been the best-kept secret in a long time: the market looking for an indication from Bernanke’s testimony that additional easing in the form of QE3 was on the way,” noted Elliot Spar, market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus, in emailed commentary.

In his testimony, Bernanke said keeping monetary stimulus is warranted but climbing energy costs would likely hike inflation temporarily and that the decline in the nation’s jobless rate had been more rapid than expected. Read more about Bernanke’s testimony.

Ahead of the Fed chairman’s appearance, U.S. stocks had risen modestly, lifting the Nasdaq briefly above 3,000 for the first time since late 2000, after data showed the economy grew more than expected in the fourth quarter and as worries about Europe’s financial troubles ebbed. Read more about Nasdaq’s moves in Tech Stocks.

“It’s a move in the right direction,” said Lazard’s Hogan of the Commerce Department’s upward revision in gross domestic product, to 3% growth from an initial reading of 2.8%, for the final three months of 2011. Read more on revised GDP.

Leveling with resistance

While Dow 13,000 and Nasdaq 3,000 could be a boost to sentiment, Martiak said he’s watching for the S&P 500 to clear technical resistance at 1,400 to 1,425.

“It took awhile to get to 13,000, so I think it will be a measured pace, but the S&P breaching 1,400 is a reasonable expectation sometime next month,” Martiak said.

For every stock rising nearly two fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 1.1 billion shares traded. Composite volume topped 4.4 billion.

Oil futures
CLJ2, +0.18%
rose for their first session in three after the government reported U.S. stockpiles of crude climbed to a more-than-five-month high. The contract for April delivery closed 52 cents higher at $107.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

A major driver in the market stemmed from the ECB’s allocation of 529.5 billion euros ($713.4 billion) in its second auction of three-year loans to the banking sector. The amount was slightly higher than some analysts expected, but not so high that it stoked worries about stresses on the banks.

“The ECB seems to have a real game plan here, the second tranche of the LTRO is right in line with credible expectations that should keep the liquidity crisis at bay,” said Hogan. Read more on ECB's LTRO operation.

Stock gains were supported after the open by a gauge of business activity in the Chicago area rising more than expected in February.

And, stock indexes were little moved by the afternoon release of the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, an anecdotal read of economic conditions across the country. The report found modest improvements in residential real estate and banking conditions. Read details of findings from 12 Fed districts.

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